Back in October, coincidentally right after breaking from his longstanding retirement as a public figure to appear in a Mint Mobile ad with Ryan Reynolds, Rick Moranis was punched in the head by a stranger—seemingly for no reason—while walking on the sidewalk near his New York City apartment. Now, The Hollywood Reporter says New York police have arrested a 35-year-old man named Marquis Ventura, who happens to be currently experiencing homelessness, for the attack. It’s unclear if the attack was really completely unprovoked, but THR says it “wasn’t known if Ventura had retained an attorney who could comment,” so it seems unlikely that anyone’s going to put out a statement on his behalf.
So before anyone decides to just say “how dare anyone hurt Rick Moranis?” or “good” or whatever, let’s all just acknowledge that there are clearly some issues going on here that go beyond “man arrested for punching beloved celebrity.” Sure, it’s bad that Moranis got punched in the head. It’s also bad that a lot of people in this country are homeless. Cops are also often bad in general. Basically, it’s more complicated than just saying “hey, they arrested the guy who punched Rick Moranis.”